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Pay as you go (PAYG) mobile plans are great for those who don't use their phone very much:
PAYG mobile plans operate differently to regular prepaid or postpaid plans. Rather than paying a set monthly fee for unlimited calls and a data allowance, you buy credit upfront and get charged for every call made, text sent and bit of data used.
While there is no singular best pay as you go mobile plan for everyone, there are two simple things to consider to find the right one for you.
The expiry period is how long your credit will last you. The longer the expiry, the less you'll need to pay for your mobile plan over a year.
While you can easily compare data and monthly prices when it comes to regular mobile plans, it's not as straightforward with PAYG plans. Because PAYG plans don't come with unlimited calls and texts, usage rates matter. The higher the rate for your calls, texts and data, the faster your credit will run out.
There are a few providers that sell pay as you go plans, but they aren't often promoted since they're targeted at low usage customers and not as popular as regular monthly mobile plans.
When it comes to PAYG plans, one of the biggest differences is how much you're charged for calls, texts and data. The best PAYG plan for you will balance the upfront plan fee, expiry period and usage rates.
We've broken down a few of the most popular PAYG providers and what they offer.
Provider | Expiry period | Call & text rates | Data rates |
---|---|---|---|
Optus | Between 45-365 days | 25c/min (no flagfall), 25c per SMS | 7c/MB |
ALDI Mobile | 365 days | 12c/min (no flagfall), 12c per SMS, 35c per MMS | 5c/MB |
TPG | Monthly | 9.9c/min (10c flagfall), 9.9c per SMS, 60c per MMS | 10c/MB |
amaysim | 365 days | 15c/min (no flagfall), 15c per SMS, 49c per MMS | 7.2c/MB |
You only save money with a PAYG plan if you don't use your phone frequently. To illustrate this, we've compared ALDI Mobile's regular 3GB for $15 plan against various usage patterns of its PAYG plan below.
As you can see, the PAYG plan works out cheaper than a regular plan for low usage amounts, but costs can spiral quickly once you're making a few calls per day or sending multiple texts.
If you're likely to make more than 1 call and 1 text daily, you're probably better off sticking to a regular mobile plan. But if you're going to make just 4 calls a month, PAYG could be the better plan for you.
Data use has been ignored in the chart above. Using just 10MB of data per day with no calls or texts on ALDI's PAYG plan will cost you the same as the 3GB plan. Data is expensive on pay as you go plans, so we highly recommend you steer clear of these plans if you want to use any amount of data.
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